The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-08-06
A CHAT WITH RossINI.
N. '. Granhic

surprised when 1 found him seated opposite to me, leaning on his gold headed cane, wigged perfumed, and smiling, in fact just as he was when first beheld him ill Paris, 1867, year before his death.
 "I am glad you invoked me-" he said. Il want to know what is going on down here. Tell me all about the living composers. The ones dead to earth are with me in paradise. I meet them every day at dinner"
 "Why, do you eat in heaven?"
 Certainly. The cuisine beats Le Cafe Anglais all to pieces. We have roast fallen angef every Sunday and the descendants of the animals saved in the ark ill various forms, GU g1atia, d td -WldndtSe, sauce Robert, etc." "Indeed Any amusements ill heaven, any fun?" Fun? You should hear Wagner at the piano and you wouldn't ask me that. He has only been with us two weeks"
 "Why, he died some years ago. Where was he ill the meanwhile?"
 ''In hades."
 "Who got him out?"
 "Liszt. If that Hungarian hadn't died he would have been there yet"
 Well, why did the devil give him up?"
 "Because he wrote a sulphur fan tasic and got six million fends to ac- company it by banging hot iron on his best furnace"
 "Oh! Are you happy there?"
 "So, so. l would be happier if they played my music. The angels are al- ways singing Donizetti, Bellini and Schubert"
 "Why don't you sing the prayer from 'Moses?'"
 Il did, but Palestrina, our leader up there, swore eribbed the idea from some angel and knocked off my maca- roni allowance eight pounds day" ''Is Berlioz there?"
 Oh yes, but in prison."
 "W hat for?"
 "For scorching Wagner's bed"
 "W Why, do you sleep there?"
 oNeoSAolull. N uCn " HS HcT IS Seul to hades or purgatory for otfenses for q few weeks, then we have rest. But tell me, who are the composers you have on earth?" asked Rossini
 "Well, we have Sullivan"
 "The prize tighter?"
 No, his brother.'
 "Has he written anything like Don Giovanni?'"
 Mot yet"
 "Will he try?"
 "We are in the hands of God"
 "Who else?"
 "Well, there's Verdi, Boito, Mar chetti, Gomez, Gounod, Thomas, Mas senet, Rubenstein, Dave Braham, Le- coca, Brahms, Gilmore, Jerome Hop- kins and quite host"
 "Any great singers like Rubin, Grisi, Malibran, Leblache and Bosio?" "Oh, yes. We have Emma Abbott, Castle, Ferrandi, Castellanos, Lester Wallack, Dixie, Pauline Markham, etc."
 "Never heard of any of 'em except Ferranti, and he must be getting trifle poSse."
 "Yes, but there are few buffos to equal him. How's my friend Karl Formes?"
 "All right. He is blasting rocks out west"
 "How?"
 "With his voice."
 "Oh? How's Patti?"
 "Divine as usual"
 "And Di Murska? Married?"
 ''1 should smile. Eleventh time."
 ''I should think she'd long to join us."
 "Cela Depend"
 "Does that old thief Verdi still crib from Mercadante's old scores?"
 "No, he has used them up. He's pilfering Corelli nowadays"
 "Do they perform my operas?"
 "Some of them. You see, maestro, very few of the old school remain and they do not know how to sing your music. However, 'Tell,' 'Mose' 'Gazza Ladra,' 'Barbiere Cenerentola,' 'Comte Ory,' the 'Stabat' and 'Semira- mide' still live"
 "What's the price of Gorgonzola cheese?"
 "About the same."
 q must go now," said the ghost. "It is time for dinner, besides we arc going to have lark tonight"
 "For dinner?"
 "No, later on. We are going to drug Wagner's beer and tie him to a tree: then Offenbach will play selec- tions from 'Barbe Bleue' in his ear with trombone out of tune until he calls on the devil for mercy, then the angels will bounce him for six weeks on an island in the Styx and we can all be happy"
 "Call again, Rossini."
 Sicuro (exit singing from the l MRarha,. NN C RaIo,,xr aos.er sa, "a ,,